Hi everyone, due to health issues, I’m not able to present The Daily Fibre for at least Monday and Tuesday.
I hope to be back for the Wednesday edition but will post ahead of Wednesday to confirm either way.

As you will have heard if you were listening to last week’s show, it’s been a rough time for me healthwise over the last few weeks. Sadly that continues, and I need to just take some time out and try to get better.

The Daily Fibre is Mushroom FM’s technology magazine show. We have the latest tech news with some great music thrown in.

On Monday’s show, I’m talking with assistive technology expert David Woodbridge about Apple’s new HomePod smart speaker, which includes the VoiceOver screen reader. We’ll frankly discuss the device’s strengths and weaknesses compared with other options on the market.

Every week day at 3 AM, and repeated at 3 Pm Eastern US time, Mushroom FM’s Daily Fibre keeps you on the cutting edge of technology news.

It’s only right, given the magnitude of our top story, that we’re devoting a little over half the programme to extensive coverage of the successful Spacex Falcon Heavy launch. It’s an incredible achievement and we’ll give you the facts, and on locations sounds of the big event.

iOS 11.3 beta 2 is out for developers, we look at some intriguing new things, including an audio demonstration of the new battery health feature.

First of all, a quick song for out times…”Take, me out to the ball, game, take, me out to the crowd…”. Oh, wait, wrong ball game. I dunno what to sing for the soup bowl actually.

Never mind, The Mosen Explosion inexorably rolls on for another week. Sadly, on 4 February 1983, Karen Carpenter died aged just 32. In collaboration with her brother Richard, she produced some outstanding music. Amazing use of multitracked harmonies, lush arrangements, and that full, rich, unmistakable voice. The Carpenters are our featured artists on this week’s show to honour her legacy.

On Thursday’s edition of The Daily Fibre, Amazon Alexa lands in Australia and New Zealand, with not all pre-orders shipping out on-time. In the US, Echo gets a very cool new feature for Android users. And you know that pre-Super Bowl Alexa teaser we played a couple of days ago? We can now tell you what it means, or more to the point, doesn’t mean.

Apple’s quarterly earnings call is tomorrow. Will we be able to find out how well iPhone X is doing? We explain how you’ll keep your shiny new HomePod current.

Could Alexa be getting a new voice, at least in the USA? A teaser ad ahead of the Super bowl suggests Alexa might be due for a major makeover. We play the ad, and discuss what might be coming. There’s also more info about HomePod, which may not be selling as well as Apple had anticipated.

If you have a Lenovo computer with a fingerprint reader and not running Windows 10, it may be at risk. We tell you what you need to know and how to patch it.

Could the US Government build a 5G network to protect Americans against foreign hacking? Should it?